Table 1.

List of some general characteristics of members of the genera Aeromonas.

Characteristic	Description	References
Habitat	Distributed in aquatic environments, usually isolated freshly from different water sources (sea, reservoirs and sewage). Some species can be isolated from healthy and diseased fish, chironomid egg masses and intestinal/extraintestinal human samples.	[53,77]
General morphological characteristics	Gram-negative bacilli	[53,77]
General biochemical characteristics	Some species have mobility (e.g., A. hydrophila, A. caviae and A. veronii) Facultative anaerobes; Oxidase positive; Catalase positive; Capable of degrading nitrates to nitrites, glucose fermenters; Resistant to vibriostatic agent O/129 (2,4-diamino-6,7 diisopropylpteridine) at concentrations of 150 mg/disc with few exceptions (Aeromonas australiensis and Aeromonas cavernicola and a few Aeromonas eucrenophila and A. veronii strains).	[53,77]
Isolation and cultivation media	General: Tryptic soy agar (TSA) and Tryptic Soy Broth (TSB). Specific: Starch-ampicillin agar; Taurocholate-tellurite-gelatin agar; Ampicillin dextrin agar; Cefsulodin-irgasan-novobiocin agar, MacConkey agar and blood agar enriched with ampicillin; Glutamate starch phenol red and Aerosmart AH medium.	[54,58,78,79,80,81,82]
NaCl tolerance	Aeromonas can tolerate up to 5% NaCl for growth.	[83,84]
Optimum growth temperature	Aeromonas grow best at temperatures between 22 °C and 37 °C, depending on the strain under analysis. Psychrophilic Aeromonas (e.g., A. salmonicida), grow at temperatures lower than 22–25 °C. Mesophilic Aeromonas (e.g., A. caviae, A. hydrophila, A. veronii), grow at temperatures between 35–37 °C. Survive in low temperatures (2–10 °C).	[83]
Optimum growth pH	Survive at pH = 5	[84]
Virulence factors and pathogenicity	Structural components (e.g., flagella, pili, proteins and membrane antigens). Extracellular products: (e.g., hemolysin, protease, lipase, protease, DNases cytotoxic enterotoxin) Secretion systems: Type II secretion system Type III secretion system Type IV secretion system Type VI secretion system	[54,85,86]